Helpful Score: 11
Having been born in Hillbilly country myself, I had to read this book and see just what it was all about. I can relate to some of the circumstances that J. D. writes about and to a degree he and I have similar lives, but I did not go to Harvard Law School, but I did escape the circumstances that surround this Hillbilly culture. However, I too still embrace the significance of having grown up in this culture. Its a warmly, refreshing and heartwarming story and the author takes great pride in his heritage, as do I.
If you (or someone you love dearly) are from this culture, you owe it to yourself to read this book.
If you (or someone you love dearly) are from this culture, you owe it to yourself to read this book.
Helpful Score: 5
The story of a conservative "hillbilly" (his words not mine) who graduated from Yale Law after growing up in Appalachia and the Rust Belt. He was the son of an absent father and a single mom addicted to drugs and men. He was mostly raised by grandparents that pushed him to do better, get a good education and provided the only stability in his life. He studies why he is the only one from his community to graduate from an ivy league school . Although I don't agree with all his conclusions, he makes a compelling comparison of the lives of urban minorities with the lives of the white working class of Appalachia and the Rust Belt.. Factory towns full of addiction, teenage pregnancies and hopelessness. Factories pulling up and leaving to go overseas. The story of America. Good read. I recommend it.
Helpful Score: 4
Being a native Kentuckian, I thought it was really well done. Captivating, not textbook-y (but he does manage to throw a few useful statistics in there), and pretty darn telling. My social work self wants to take this further, but as a memoir, this is fine. This is good and this will open people's eyes. This is his lived experience - and I think he also nails it in regards to the hillbilly culture in some ways. There is this desire to be fiercely independent, and yet is increasing not independent.
A quick read for me.
A quick read for me.
Helpful Score: 3
I usually love memoirs but found Hillbilly Elegy dry at times, repetitive and it didn't make sense to me chronologically how he would throw in his views on poverty and politics. I wish the book was written as a memoir until the end and then there was a chapter on how he feels as an adult about his life, looking back and what can be done to help children in poverty. I just didn't connect with the book at all and at times was rushing through it to get it over with.
Helpful Score: 3
Great book. I taught in Appalachia many years ago and worked with the families of the children I taught during the summer as well as during the school year. This book accurately describes the lives of people living in the areas and the hardships they endured.
Helpful Score: 2
Have always wondered how a "hillbilly" upbringing would affect the character of the people. This was a sympathetic, yet realistic look at the damages done by the alcoholism, drug use and physical and psychological abuse. And it helps you understand why these adults are always in a fight vs flight situation, and how this can affect their upward mobility. Many correlations to poor people of color's upbringing and the ravages of poverty. A must read for everyone, especially today. I just watched the movie directed by Ron Howard and incredible cast and movie, maybe better than the book. Glenn Close, Amy Adams, Award winning performances/ I see some Oscar wins coming up!!
Helpful Score: 2
J. D. Vance gives us the story of his life. His family, "hillbilly's", move from Kentucky to Ohio to escape the devastation that they have grown up with, to essentially become the working middle class. Unfortunately, the "hillbilly" mentality never seems to go away.
J. D. grew up with a Mom who probably was trying her hardest to do the best she knew how to raise her daughter, Lindsay and her son. But she still had that mentality, and could never seem to find her way out of that.
J. D.'s grandparents, Papaw and Mamaw, always incentivized J. D. to try to educate himself and get out of the lifestyle that the entire neighborhood was experiencing.
This is the absolute epitomy of the trials of being working-class Americans striving to reach a higher goal.
J. D. grew up with a Mom who probably was trying her hardest to do the best she knew how to raise her daughter, Lindsay and her son. But she still had that mentality, and could never seem to find her way out of that.
J. D.'s grandparents, Papaw and Mamaw, always incentivized J. D. to try to educate himself and get out of the lifestyle that the entire neighborhood was experiencing.
This is the absolute epitomy of the trials of being working-class Americans striving to reach a higher goal.
Helpful Score: 1
This is an autobiography rather than a cultural analysis and whilst it is interesting as a memoir, I didn't find it enlightening or particularly well written.
Far more than most I read, this book hit close to home, as it does for many people in the US, I expect. My own "hillbilly" relatives weren't nearly so much so as the figures described in this book, but many of the elements are certainly familiar, even to me. I was admittedly a couple of generations removed: this story applied far more to my great-grandparents and their children, many of whom struggled with the same challenges which haunted the author and his kin, seemingly for life. What I liked most about this book was not so much the descriptions of the atrocities and Vance's ability to "rise above" and escape his likely fate (a stint in the armed forces was a prime factor), one which befell most of his peers, including most of his close relatives, but the way in which I, and likely many readers, could relate and be grateful that we were able to break free from the cycle of poverty and deprivation.
The author's story is all too familiar: I sent a copy of this book to my father, who would likely appreciate it even more than me, as he was closer to the large extended family which made the trek from the south to the West Coast, but the trauma of their upbringing followed close behind them. Some made out very well, while others experienced a lifetime of the travails Vance describes, including addiction and abuse. My orphaned great-grandmother, for example, was married at age 13 to an 18-year-old, whose family she was living with. She had her first child shortly thereafter, but the baby, perhaps not surprisingly, didn't survive. A succession of nine other children followed, one of whom perished at age six, when, the day after Christmas, she was playing near a lighted stove, when her clothing caught fire. The family was summoned by her screams, but it was too late: she died of the severe burns later that same day, and was buried in an unmarked grave (as far as I can tell; I've walked the cemetery multiple times with no trace of a stone) in a poor country cemetery which is still located down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. The family was largely transient and landless, moving from place to place, a succession of children being born along the way, wherever they went.
The author's experience was somewhat different, in that his family owned property, a major factor in the way in which a person is perceived in this type of community: poverty is relative, and "landed" persons always enjoy far greater respect and prestige, however humble their holdings, than their landless peers who often had to rely far greater on the charity of others, often because they were unable to even grow their own food, an decided advantage enjoyed by those who had even a small parcel of property. The author alludes to this in the book, where he states that even if the house was falling down around their ears, a family's garden was usually ample; it had to be-it was a matter of survival.
Personally, I didn't focus as much on the racial aspect (i.e., the "poor white" community) as the poverty aspect of the book, and the difficulty the family had in negotiating the different environments in which they found themselves. They were transplants, to be sure, and even though many of their neighbors likewise emigrated in search of greater economic opportunity, the complex social network which made such a life tolerable if not enviable did not translate to the new towns and cities they inhabited, which the author explains was a primary reason for the difficulty they encountered and their failure to assimilate, which has important lessons for us today.
I'm sure the book was cathartic for the author, but I would like to have learned a bit more about the nature of the communities he describes, even though the personal narrative was quite moving. Looking at more of the phenomena associated with these communities, as well as the struggle impoverished, ill-educated and unsocialized outcasts experience when they attempt to relocate themselves may indeed help others, especially newly-arrived immigrants who often struggle to fit into communities which often likewise have difficulty accepting them.
The author's story is all too familiar: I sent a copy of this book to my father, who would likely appreciate it even more than me, as he was closer to the large extended family which made the trek from the south to the West Coast, but the trauma of their upbringing followed close behind them. Some made out very well, while others experienced a lifetime of the travails Vance describes, including addiction and abuse. My orphaned great-grandmother, for example, was married at age 13 to an 18-year-old, whose family she was living with. She had her first child shortly thereafter, but the baby, perhaps not surprisingly, didn't survive. A succession of nine other children followed, one of whom perished at age six, when, the day after Christmas, she was playing near a lighted stove, when her clothing caught fire. The family was summoned by her screams, but it was too late: she died of the severe burns later that same day, and was buried in an unmarked grave (as far as I can tell; I've walked the cemetery multiple times with no trace of a stone) in a poor country cemetery which is still located down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. The family was largely transient and landless, moving from place to place, a succession of children being born along the way, wherever they went.
The author's experience was somewhat different, in that his family owned property, a major factor in the way in which a person is perceived in this type of community: poverty is relative, and "landed" persons always enjoy far greater respect and prestige, however humble their holdings, than their landless peers who often had to rely far greater on the charity of others, often because they were unable to even grow their own food, an decided advantage enjoyed by those who had even a small parcel of property. The author alludes to this in the book, where he states that even if the house was falling down around their ears, a family's garden was usually ample; it had to be-it was a matter of survival.
Personally, I didn't focus as much on the racial aspect (i.e., the "poor white" community) as the poverty aspect of the book, and the difficulty the family had in negotiating the different environments in which they found themselves. They were transplants, to be sure, and even though many of their neighbors likewise emigrated in search of greater economic opportunity, the complex social network which made such a life tolerable if not enviable did not translate to the new towns and cities they inhabited, which the author explains was a primary reason for the difficulty they encountered and their failure to assimilate, which has important lessons for us today.
I'm sure the book was cathartic for the author, but I would like to have learned a bit more about the nature of the communities he describes, even though the personal narrative was quite moving. Looking at more of the phenomena associated with these communities, as well as the struggle impoverished, ill-educated and unsocialized outcasts experience when they attempt to relocate themselves may indeed help others, especially newly-arrived immigrants who often struggle to fit into communities which often likewise have difficulty accepting them.
This is spot on & enlightening. Too many don't understand the values of other Americans. Opens up greater understanding if you will listen.
Not only is "Hillbilly Elegy" by @JDVance1 an inspiring, thought provoking, and challenging memoir, but it offers valuable data and insight into the culture around which i grew up in my immediate and extended family, and neighbors and schoolmates in the Missouri Ozarks. It helps me understand some of my family culture and dynamics, as well as inform my life history as i look back on it. Some very solid solutions are offered, though how to apply them may be problematic given that message of this book probably will not reach the majority of the culture described. In addition, i'm left wanting more answers as to what is the root cause of the Hillbilly culture described. I have seen it first hand and experienced it, but am left wondering how it came to be in the beginning. I'll be searching for additional reading to try to answer my questions. Thank you Mr. Vance for this candid and informative memoir.
One of the best reads I've had... J.D. Vance has 'opened' the eyes of the reader into his childhood of growing up as a Kentucky hillbilly, the struggles and challenges that this culture faces in America.
Vance writes with a depth that keeps the reader turning page after page, wanting to learn more about this culture of people in America, the challenges and obstacles that these people encounter daily. Vance is one of the few in his culture that overcomes the many crisis' in his life; he is driven to overcome that which has held him captive for many years. Vance arises above the disadvantages and struggles of his childhood, to that of a lawyer, one who has seen both sides of two cultures.
An excellent read.
Vance writes with a depth that keeps the reader turning page after page, wanting to learn more about this culture of people in America, the challenges and obstacles that these people encounter daily. Vance is one of the few in his culture that overcomes the many crisis' in his life; he is driven to overcome that which has held him captive for many years. Vance arises above the disadvantages and struggles of his childhood, to that of a lawyer, one who has seen both sides of two cultures.
An excellent read.
This is interesting book about bottom of the bucket family from Kentucky. You can transplant the family but it does not change their inculturated ways. These people were crazy .They married as young teens and wondered why things did not go well. The grandparents totally messed up their children and they learned a lot to teach their grandchildren. This is a good book if you can get through all the cursing and swearing. This reminds me of the Beverly Hillbillies still in Bugtustle.
Well written and a fascinating story. Not sure he answered how he made it from the low starting point of his life to Yale, but lots of incite into poverty and trying to make it to the middle class.
I don't know why this book is marketed as explaining why people vote for Trump. Everyone I know who voted for Trump did so because Hillary is even worse. It doesn't take a book to explain that.
Other than that, this was a very good book. Vance was raised in the Rust belt, but his family was from Appalachia. Both of these places were home to him.
Appalachia is the third world of the United States. Like most third world places, it has a number of issues both internal and external. Like most third world peoples, the ambitious of Appalachia tend to go to other places in order to advance. Vances's grandparents moved to work in the factories; factories that were recruiting whole families of Appalachians. It was in Kentucky that JD's grandparents were themselves. However, going to Ohio made them much more prosperous.
In both Ohio and Kentucky they had their share of personal and family struggles. Vance presents them lovingly and realistically. There was a lot of violence in their lives much of it perpetuated by them. There was also a lot of substance abuse. Both Vance's mother and grandfather were alcoholics. However, there was also a lot of love and loyalty.
Vance looks unflinchingly at the problems in both of these cultures: the fatalism and defensiveness of Appalachians who see themselves as victims of outside forces, the assumptions of youth that they too will spend their lives in the factories.
I would recommend this book for anyone who wanted to understand poverty better, who wanted to read about real family life, or who wants to understand why some people move up and others get stuck. It does not, to me, explain any politics.
Other than that, this was a very good book. Vance was raised in the Rust belt, but his family was from Appalachia. Both of these places were home to him.
Appalachia is the third world of the United States. Like most third world places, it has a number of issues both internal and external. Like most third world peoples, the ambitious of Appalachia tend to go to other places in order to advance. Vances's grandparents moved to work in the factories; factories that were recruiting whole families of Appalachians. It was in Kentucky that JD's grandparents were themselves. However, going to Ohio made them much more prosperous.
In both Ohio and Kentucky they had their share of personal and family struggles. Vance presents them lovingly and realistically. There was a lot of violence in their lives much of it perpetuated by them. There was also a lot of substance abuse. Both Vance's mother and grandfather were alcoholics. However, there was also a lot of love and loyalty.
Vance looks unflinchingly at the problems in both of these cultures: the fatalism and defensiveness of Appalachians who see themselves as victims of outside forces, the assumptions of youth that they too will spend their lives in the factories.
I would recommend this book for anyone who wanted to understand poverty better, who wanted to read about real family life, or who wants to understand why some people move up and others get stuck. It does not, to me, explain any politics.
Watched the movie and loved it, then read the book. Excellent!
The movie was much better than this book and honestly the author is very hard to like.
my hubby read it and was surprised to how much the writer life sounded like my family.....that was reason I did not finish reading it...that was when he read the book.
No, this book did not make me understand how Trump could get elected, but it is an honest and touching story of how one man rose above the circumstances he was born into.
